Princess Power - September 2016 Weight Loss and Lifestyle Change Challenge

[piglet1979]

Good Morning everyone


Okay we have learned that many of our much loved Princess stories are derived from much darker folk tales. But Sleeping Beauty may be one of the worst. The original version penned in 1636 by an Italian named Giambattista Basile – was very sinister involving sexual assault by a King, infidelity, it was not true loves kiss that woke Sleeping Beauty but giving birth to twins (in her sleep) and one of the babies sucking the flax (responsible for the sleep) from her finger, planned infanticide and murder by the King’s current wife when she found out – but it ended in her death instead. Not very Disney is it? The journey to the modern story began with alterations by French Author, Charles Perrault, followed by the Brothers Grimm. It was the Brothers Grimm version that saw the emergence of Maleficent and the name Briar Rose which our current Disney story is based. What a journey – can I say I am so glad for the Disney Version!

View attachment 194816 ​

Let’s start with the obvious part of Sleeping Beauty – SLEEP! I know from recent posts this is something that many of struggle with. Not only can affect our weight loss journey it also related to overall health and wellbeing. Here is a link with some info – it has quite a lot in it but even when I skimmed over it – good info jumped out at me.

https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/sdd
So just as those of us who are parents likely tried/or are still trying to use bedtime routines with our kids to make bedtime easier …. turns out us adults need a bedtime routine as well!
View attachment 194817​

QOTD: Do you every feel like you have slept as good as Princess Aurora? What is your typical sleep/bedtime routine?
Bonus Challenge: I know that many of us kind of already know some of the things we are doing that are affecting our sleep badly. Identify one thing you can change/improve and do it for every night for one week to see if it helps and let us know.

Quote of the Day
View attachment 194818 ​

This is something I am working on. Thankfully I have 2 mostly good sleepers. The kids go to bed between 7:30-8 every night. My son falls asleep right but my daughter does not. Up until my daughter turned 5 it was a battle until 11 every night. After getting portal DVD players for the kids for a 24 hour drive to Disney and letting the kids have them at bed time she finally stopped fighting. That year the kids got tv's in there room fro Christmas. She has never fought bed time since. She does lay awake until 10 or 11 though. So I have no excuse for my sleep but I stay up some nights until 12. I am working on this. Between 9:30 and 10 I start getting ready for bed. I pack lunches, take a shower, blow dry my hair (this is something new. My hair looks so much better now), and hopefully get to bed by 10:30-10:45. It is a work in process. This means I give up watching at least one show on the DVR a night. The last few nights I have been in bed early and have been feeling much better in the morning.

 

[dsnyfn1022]

QOTD: Do you every feel like you have slept as good as Princess Aurora? What is your typical sleep/bedtime routine?
Bonus Challenge: I know that many of us kind of already know some of the things we are doing that are affecting our sleep badly. Identify one thing you can change/improve and do it for every night for one week to see if it helps and let us know. ​

My sleep or lack thereof is definitely cyclical. There are days or weeks when I could easily sleep for 10-12 hours each night. However, there are also weeks where I'll wake up constantly throughout the night or just be wide awake at 2 or 3a and not be able to go back to sleep. I think it's stress and anxiety relate for me. I don't really have an exciting bedtime routine though.

One thing that I did find helpful last night was journaling. As I was laying down my mind was starting to wander and I wanted to get it all out on the page. It was nice because when I put my journal away I stopped thinking about whatever it was that was surely going to keep me up for awhile.

 

[Lady Marie]

I've complained about my sleep routine before on here Haha! It used to be wonderful-- now not so much. I definitely see a correlation between sleep and weight loss. It's just as important as being active for my body. If I'm active and not sleeping the scale barely moves, but add in the sleep and down it goes!

I'm bad in that I do watch TV before bed, but it helps calm my crazy mind from worrying about myself and my problems. Otherwise my mind would race. I'll take the "blue light" (or whatever the issue is) over the hamster burning the midnight oils running on my brain wheel.

I know what I will do for the challenge (and I was just telling DH this this morning as well!): wear my earplugs every night and see if I notice a difference. I use them sporadically and get much better sleep when I do. I think I am hearing things in the night which makes me restless, but I don't even know that it's sounds waking me up because I am not processing it.

 

[Oneanne]

Good Morning everyone


Okay we have learned that many of our much loved Princess stories are derived from much darker folk tales. But Sleeping Beauty may be one of the worst. The original version penned in 1636 by an Italian named Giambattista Basile – was very sinister involving sexual assault by a King, infidelity, it was not true loves kiss that woke Sleeping Beauty but giving birth to twins (in her sleep) and one of the babies sucking the flax (responsible for the sleep) from her finger, planned infanticide and murder by the King’s current wife when she found out – but it ended in her death instead. Not very Disney is it? The journey to the modern story began with alterations by French Author, Charles Perrault, followed by the Brothers Grimm. It was the Brothers Grimm version that saw the emergence of Maleficent and the name Briar Rose which our current Disney story is based. What a journey – can I say I am so glad for the Disney Version!

View attachment 194816 ​

Let’s start with the obvious part of Sleeping Beauty – SLEEP! I know from recent posts this is something that many of struggle with. Not only can affect our weight loss journey it also related to overall health and wellbeing. Here is a link with some info – it has quite a lot in it but even when I skimmed over it – good info jumped out at me.

https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/sdd
So just as those of us who are parents likely tried/or are still trying to use bedtime routines with our kids to make bedtime easier …. turns out us adults need a bedtime routine as well!
View attachment 194817​

QOTD: Do you every feel like you have slept as good as Princess Aurora? What is your typical sleep/bedtime routine?
Bonus Challenge: I know that many of us kind of already know some of the things we are doing that are affecting our sleep badly. Identify one thing you can change/improve and do it for every night for one week to see if it helps and let us know.

Quote of the Day
View attachment 194818 ​

Full confession here... It is wasn't until about a year ago when I had breakfast at CRT, that I finally figured out who Aurora is. Now granted I hadn't given it a great deal of thought as I've never really been into the Princesses, I'd just kind of assumed she was Cinderella in a pink dress.

I just had a really good sleep last night, only waking up once during the night and then right when I had to get up... I call that waking up hard. I always sleep better the nights after Pilates.

I recently changed the position of my bed, so that I'm not facing either window when I'm sleeping. I have a motion sensor light on one side and my neighbors behind both have the same. They can be disruptive, even if they don't fully wake me up.

As part of the transition to autumn, I'm wanting to feel cozy and snuggley at home, but the house is actually light and airy with lots of Windows. I love the drapes I have up but they are light weight, so I'm going to start swapping them out, starting with the bedroom. That should also help with sleeping. And as I've mentioned before, I take 5HTP to help with the quality of my sleep, else my mind will race and process all night long.

 

[MommaoffherRocker]

I am a very bad sleeper! I usually stay up with DH pretty late since that is our only alone time. I don't have a routine and usually fall asleep with the TV on so my mind doesn't wander too far. I always felt like I get the best sleep in the mornings but that is not possible now with kids in school and having to be a grown up.

For the bonus challenge I think starting the kid's bedtime routine earlier would help so I can spend time with DH and get to bed at a decent time.

 

[Dr Gunnie]

QOTD: Do you every feel like you have slept as good as Princess Aurora? What is your typical sleep/bedtime routine?
Bonus Challenge: I know that many of us kind of already know some of the things we are doing that are affecting our sleep badly. Identify one thing you can change/improve and do it for every night for one week to see if it helps and let us know.​

This school year I've been falling asleep around 9:30 or 10:00 pm and I wake up at 5:45. I've been getting close to 8 hours per night. Some night's I'll fall asleep on the couch and I'll wake up at some point in the middle of the night and head upstairs to bed. I hate doing it - getting motivated to head upstairs is the worst. I guess the one thing I would change is to go upstairs right when I start to feel like I might dose off and not wait. It usually happens one or two times a week - but I would rather it happen zero times per week.

 

[DVCFan1994]

Good Morning everyone


Okay we have learned that many of our much loved Princess stories are derived from much darker folk tales. But Sleeping Beauty may be one of the worst. The original version penned in 1636 by an Italian named Giambattista Basile – was very sinister involving sexual assault by a King, infidelity, it was not true loves kiss that woke Sleeping Beauty but giving birth to twins (in her sleep) and one of the babies sucking the flax (responsible for the sleep) from her finger, planned infanticide and murder by the King’s current wife when she found out – but it ended in her death instead. Not very Disney is it? The journey to the modern story began with alterations by French Author, Charles Perrault, followed by the Brothers Grimm. It was the Brothers Grimm version that saw the emergence of Maleficent and the name Briar Rose which our current Disney story is based. What a journey – can I say I am so glad for the Disney Version!

View attachment 194816 ​

Let’s start with the obvious part of Sleeping Beauty – SLEEP! I know from recent posts this is something that many of struggle with. Not only can affect our weight loss journey it also related to overall health and wellbeing. Here is a link with some info – it has quite a lot in it but even when I skimmed over it – good info jumped out at me.

https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/sdd
So just as those of us who are parents likely tried/or are still trying to use bedtime routines with our kids to make bedtime easier …. turns out us adults need a bedtime routine as well!
View attachment 194817​

QOTD: Do you every feel like you have slept as good as Princess Aurora? What is your typical sleep/bedtime routine?
Bonus Challenge: I know that many of us kind of already know some of the things we are doing that are affecting our sleep badly. Identify one thing you can change/improve and do it for every night for one week to see if it helps and let us know.

Quote of the Day
View attachment 194818 ​

Aurora is my favorite That said I honestly don't know why, I've just always loved her. I sang the "Once Upon a Dream" song to my kids every night when they were little. I also dressed as her for my first PHM.



That said, I am a horrible sleeper and am 100% sure this is part of my issues with weight loss. Being tired lowers my energy for workouts, lowers my willpower for resisting sweets for a quick energy boost, and just makes it hard to get through the day some days and make the right choices along the way.

My problem sleeping is mainly due to a brain that just does not shut down easily. I have learned that reading at bedtime helps that. That said, I think I need to make sure I am in bed and start reading by 10 every night with the hope of being asleep by 1030. That would be about 7.5 hours sleep as I am up around 6 most days. I will commit to doing that on weeknights for the next week, and report back what happens

 

[kirstie101]

I am usually a good sleeper. As long as the kids are in bed on time then I'm in bed on time! I would love to sleep in on the weekends but with our schedule it really only happens once or twice a month lol.

To improve my sleep I could probably read instead of watching tv the last half hour before bedtime. Will I do it though? Probably not. Thats the only time DH and I have alone and he likes to watch TV so I like to watch with him.

 

[HappyGrape]

6.5 hours a night. I tried to increase sleeping with all sorts of things but let it go in the end. That's how much I sleep and it feels enough.

 

[Flossbolna]

I am a very good sleeper. My only problem with sleep is going to bed. For whatever reason I find it so difficult to actually move myself into my bed and then shut off the light there. I am going to commit to moving myself into bed by 10pm at the latest for the next 7 days and then have light out by 10:30pm. That should give me perfect 8 hours of sleep and I can still get up so early that I can be productive before work!

 

[4Mickeys]

As for sleep I have NO problem in that department. I could hibernate without issue

Great to hear you get lots of good quality sleep I used to be like that pre-kids but now my sleep is all over the place.

Morning all! I'm back from the excitement, fun, and magic of San Diego and Disneyland! Brought a few extra pounds back with me, but I won't stress about it because every single calorie was delicious and worth it!

Welcome back! So happy you had fantastic time - we can't wait to see some pics

This means I give up watching at least one show on the DVR a night. The last few nights I have been in bed early and have been feeling much better in the morning.

The lure of our favourite shows is hard to resist!

One thing that I did find helpful last night was journaling. As I was laying down my mind was starting to wander and I wanted to get it all out on the page. It was nice because when I put my journal away I stopped thinking about whatever it was that was surely going to keep me up for awhile.

That's great that you found a way to get it our of your head, hope it continues to be successful for you.

I'm bad in that I do watch TV before bed, but it helps calm my crazy mind from worrying about myself and my problems. Otherwise my mind would race. I'll take the "blue light" (or whatever the issue is) over the hamster burning the midnight oils running on my brain wheel.

I know what I will do for the challenge (and I was just telling DH this this morning as well!): wear my earplugs every night and see if I notice a difference. I use them sporadically and get much better sleep when I do. I think I am hearing things in the night which makes me restless, but I don't even know that it's sounds waking me up because I am not processing it.

Sounds in the night always seem worse than the daytime! I also do the wrong thing with TV and computer use right up until bed time.

Full confession here... It is wasn't until about a year ago when I had breakfast at CRT, that I finally figured out who Aurora is. Now granted I hadn't given it a great deal of thought as I've never really been into the Princesses, I'd just kind of assumed she was Cinderella in a pink dress.

Well now you know more about her they would be easy to confuse if you don't know too much about them though - I get that.

I recently changed the position of my bed, so that I'm not facing either window when I'm sleeping. I have a motion sensor light on one side and my neighbors behind both have the same. They can be disruptive, even if they don't fully wake me up.

Hope that new position and the new drapes when your get them help - those sensor lights can be bright so that would be quite disruptive.

I always felt like I get the best sleep in the mornings but that is not possible now with kids in school and having to be a grown up.

Its hard to be a grown up some days - I remember the days of being able to sleep in!

This school year I've been falling asleep around 9:30 or 10:00 pm and I wake up at 5:45. I've been getting close to 8 hours per night. Some night's I'll fall asleep on the couch and I'll wake up at some point in the middle of the night and head upstairs to bed. I hate doing it - getting motivated to head upstairs is the worst. I guess the one thing I would change is to go upstairs right when I start to feel like I might dose off and not wait. It usually happens one or two times a week - but I would rather it happen zero times per week.

I do this some nights as well - usually when I just want to see something on TV but my body just can't do it.

Aurora is my favorite That said I honestly don't know why, I've just always loved her. I sang the "Once Upon a Dream" song to my kids every night when they were little. I also dressed as her for my first PHM

I love that you sang that song to your kids that is so sweet! Great pic of your Aurora costume

My problem sleeping is mainly due to a brain that just does not shut down easily. I have learned that reading at bedtime helps that. That said, I think I need to make sure I am in bed and start reading by 10 every night with the hope of being asleep by 1030. That would be about 7.5 hours sleep as I am up around 6 most days. I will commit to doing that on weeknights for the next week, and report back what happens

Did you see @dsnyfn1022's idea for journaling to get the thoughts out of her head? I also read that if you say ok for half an hour I can think about all the things worrying me then that's it - its supposed to help also. But I would think you would have to make that half an hour at least an hour before bed so that you can relax afterwards.

I am usually a good sleeper. As long as the kids are in bed on time then I'm in bed on time! I would love to sleep in on the weekends but with our schedule it really only happens once or twice a month lol.

Ah yes those weekend sleep ins - I have just gotten the opportunity back for a Saturday sleep in - but I find that for some reason I am waking up early and can't get back to sleep.

6.5 hours a night. I tried to increase sleeping with all sorts of things but let it go in the end. That's how much I sleep and it feels enough.

If you are well rested and its working for you that is great

I am a very good sleeper. My only problem with sleep is going to bed. For whatever reason I find it so difficult to actually move myself into my bed and then shut off the light there. I am going to commit to moving myself into bed by 10pm at the latest for the next 7 days and then have light out by 10:30pm. That should give me perfect 8 hours of sleep and I can still get up so early that I can be productive before work!

Its so funny that a few of us resist the idea of going to bed. Good luck with lights out by 10.30

 

[4Mickeys]

Ok now my sleep - I don't really have a routine either - it is to veg on the couch watching TV or chatting on here I enjoy time after the kids are in bed and the house settles for some me time. There are nights even when I am tired I will stay up longer than I should - especially if I really want to see something on TV - this can have me up to midnight or beyond some nights. I can often fall asleep on the couch. At least once a month I get so tired that I fall asleep on the couch just after dinner. I almost did that last night - but ended up only closing my eyes for about 15 minutes but did make it to bed by 9.30 (way early for me) and then this morning I was awake at 5.40 when I really didn't have to be up that early - but I came on here to reply to you all.

I also have periods where anxiety interferes with my getting to and staying asleep. Then nights when I am just out for the count. One thing I tried a while ago when I was having trouble shutting off my mind when getting to sleep was to use an app that plays natural sounds - I really liked the stormy one - so I would have it on low and listen to the rain and that would help me drift off to sleep. I haven't used it in a while though.

I am going to try to get better at setting myself a bedtime and going - rather than pushing my self to stay up for no good reason.

Its Friday morning for me here! Yeah! DS15 gets back from camp today!! And best of all it is the start of 2 weeks break!! We aren't going away anywhere but hopefully we have some good weather and we can hit the beach and start paddling again.

Okay have a good nights sleep everyone!

 

[cmarsh31]

Sleep. Oh goodness. Where to start. Anxiety - I can plan the universe in the middle of the night and unfortunately, DS has inherited this issue. In general, DD is just like DH, in bed, asleep, til morning. We all have pretty solid bedtime routines. No TVs in bedrooms (we have one that I use when someone is sick or the kids have friends over, etc but never at bedtime). Everyone reads at night 20-30 min in general. We use both Kindles & books, but Paperwhites (the "good" light ones not the Fire "bad light ones). I do ok if I can sleep from 11pm - 8am... unfortunately, life doesn't care about that and I have to be up at 6:30am. So that's my first obstacle. Second is pain. As long as I'm exercising daily and moving (yay for Fitbit), my hips (pregnancy hips that never went away after the 2nd time) don't bother me much but I'm dealing with calcification in my rotator cuff that isn't going away. Started in Jan. I need to get back to the DR to see where I am in the reabsorption process and if it's time to consider having the rest of it sucked out... It wasn't affecting my sleep much until recently so I'm afraid it's getting worse again.

So, putting this here so that I ACTUALLY call tomorrow, instead of the "I really should call" that I've been doing for two weeks. Tomorrow I will call my orthopedist to make an appointment about my shoulder so hopefully I can sleep better.

OOOOOOHHHH - because here is where it will be the most appreciated. I finished week 5 of the c25k today which mean I RAN for 20 minutes straight and didn't die!

 

[courtneybeth]

Sorry that I've been hit and miss this week - I'm in the midst of something (maybe?) good happening to my non-DIS life. I am vague at the moment (not pregnant, LOL!) but will share details if it comes to fruition. Please just send pixie dust for good news for either tomorrow or Monday ((So this is kind of my late woohoo Wednesday?))

QOTD: Do you every feel like you have slept as good as Princess Aurora? What is your typical sleep/bedtime routine?
Bonus Challenge: I know that many of us kind of already know some of the things we are doing that are affecting our sleep badly. Identify one thing you can change/improve and do it for every night for one week to see if it helps and let us know.
​

When I was in grad school I would go to sleep at 3am and be up at 7am to head into work by 8am. So clearly four hours of sleep and stress resulted in a significant weight gain. Now? I can't stay awake past 10pm.

I do my best to stick to a routine. I like to be in my bed at 10pm and read on my Ipad via night settings so get myself to sleep. I grew up reading books before going to sleep so it's part of it - so very much like Belle.

For the things to change? No caffeine after 3pm. It's worked in the past. need to try it again!

 

[courtneybeth]

Its Friday morning for me here! Yeah!

This is insane. I did the time zone look up on Google and it's about 8:40pm here at Disneyland and Google is telling me that it's 1:40pm where you are. You're more than half a day ahead of me.

I hope the future is nice... and that your Friday is going well

 

[4Mickeys]

So, putting this here so that I ACTUALLY call tomorrow, instead of the "I really should call" that I've been doing for two weeks. Tomorrow I will call my orthopedist to make an appointment about my shoulder so hopefully I can sleep better.

I will check in on you tomorrow to see if you did it

Sorry that I've been hit and miss this week - I'm in the midst of something (maybe?) good happening to my non-DIS life. I am vague at the moment (not pregnant, LOL!) but will share details if it comes to fruition. Please just send pixie dust for good news for either tomorrow or Monday ((So this is kind of my late woohoo Wednesday?))

That's ok - you were missed though - I hope whatever it is works out for you - will send you pixie dust

This is insane. I did the time zone look up on Google and it's about 8:40pm here at Disneyland and Google is telling me that it's 1:40pm where you are. You're more than half a day ahead of me.

I hope the future is nice... and that your Friday is going well

Lol I know! When we came over there on our trip we left here at 10.15am on the 10th September and after flying about 14 hours arrived at 6.30am the say day on the 10th September .... coming home though we lost a day - we left LAX at midnight 1 October and arrived in Brisbane at 7am on 3 October!

There future is good - its a beautiful sunny day - and it is starting to heat up here - DS15 is safely home from his epic 3 day trekking/canoeing - he survived it but didn't like the hiking part lol - can't say I blame him.

 

[HappyGrape]

My weight loss/maintenance moods have settled from Hulk coaster up and down level to more moderate barnstormer level today and I am over the jeans shopping downer! I need to very strongly remind myself that overdoing is what tripped me in the past, and that I have the rest of my life to aim for healthy living so I need to keep my efforts to happy level without overdoing it

Still up and down but more reasonable level.

Happy Friday All

 

[HappyGrape]

It's actually pretty crazy that the participants in this group are based at least in 3 continents!

 

[Flossbolna]

Quick report: I was in bed by 10:12pm, so failed in this regard. BUT light out was at 10:30pm! So, I succeeded. Feeling very well rested today despite a horrible nightmare involving a crazy theme park where a swing carrousel nearly killed my boyfriend...

Also, scale was down again. So, now I am only up one pound since the beginning of September and this feels at least halfway believable with the crazy eating I did in the first week. Still feeling bloated though, so maybe more water weight is going to come off?

Off to work!

And @HappyGrape you said you prefer US jeans - can't you take some time while you are in Orlando to go jeans shopping there? Might be worth it to get a larger supply there to avoid having to battle with the Irish jeans too much!

 

[HappyGrape]

I will do that Flossbolna. I get to Millenia Mall for shopping session! All my current jeans are from our last trip in 2014. We can get them here too but on much higher price.

Yey for the scale being down!